If you are convinced as I am that Republican Congressman Peter Roskam should be replaced with someone who will respond to the needs and desires of the 6th District, then the time to take action begins today. Early voting opens today for the February 2nd Primary election. We have a terrific alternative to Roskam in Democrat Ben Lowe of Wheaton. Ben is running unopposed in the Democratic primary. Despite this, he needs your vote to get party leadership to sit up and take notice and strongly support his candidacy. So please vote and request a emocratic ballot. Early voting continues through January 28. If you are not yet registered to vote, it is not too late. Du Page County residents may register and vote at the offices of the Du Page County Election Commission through January 26th. For more information on early voting and late registration visit the Election Commission website at http://www.dupageelections.com.
The holiday season is always a pretty expensive time for me what with gift-buying and travel and this year is no exception. But when I received an end-of-the-year appeal today from Ben Lowe’s campaign today, I cracked open the piggy bank and sent him an extra donation in order to help him meet his fundraising goals.
In the 6th District, we are presently represented by one of the most extremely conservative members of Congress, Peter Roskam. Roskam does not share the values of the majority of the district he is supposed to represent. In fact, Peter Roskam uses the privileges of his office and our own tax dollars to actively campaign against policies like universal health care that will benefit the citizens for whom he is supposed to be a voice.
2010 could be the year that we bring Peter Roskam’s mis-representation to an end. We have a fine progressive Democratic alternative in Ben Lowe. The harsh reality, however, is that Roskam is well-funded by the corporate interests he represents and has a history of running agressive campaigns. In order for Ben to get his message out, he will need funding from all of us who want better representation for the 6th District. That’s why I’m doing as much as I can to help the Ben’s campaign. I hope you will be generous in your support as well.
Happy New Year!
I was pleased to have had the opportunity this past Thursday to meet face-to-face with 6th District Congressional Candidate, Democrat Ben Lowe of Wheaton. I sat down with Ben, and with consultant Kevin Spidel of Patriot Strategies, who, as you may remember, managed the 2006 primary race here in IL-06 for Christine Cegelis, another fine progressive candidate. In the picture above, Ben is signing my copy of his book, Green Revolution.
I have to say that I am very impressed with Ben. He is a warm, intelligent and articulate person with very progressive ideals coupled with a healthy dose of political realism. I think he has the potential to speak to the concerns of a wide variety of 6th district contituencies and bring them together to defeat Roskam, who caters to big corporations and offers nothing to help a district experiencing exceptionally hard times. Ben’s discussion of issues like healthcare and immigration reform and global climate change in terms like “justice” and “human rights” is music to my ears. I can’t wait to see Ben elected. (I kind of wanted to bring him home with me but Kevin intervened).
In the time before the primary, Ben says he will be heavily focused on getting out to meet folks in the district and listenening to their concerns. He is anxious to meet with groups, large and small, and encouraging anyone who is interested to host a coffee for friends and neighbors to get together with Ben.
Ben reports that he is also heavily focused at present on fundraising, a necessary evil when running against an opponent like Roskam who is well-funded by big corporations and extremist interest groups. Ben says that fund raising efforts are starting out well but he has a long way to go. Please consider making whatever donation you can afford through Ben’s website.
I am hoping that the more distinguished bloggers covering the 6th district who follow Roskam will getto know Ben and help to get the word out about his candidacy. Come on Progress Illinois, Prairie State Blue, Bridget in the Sixth, Wurfwhile, Heartland Progressive – this is a great progressive candidate. He deserves your support – or at least your consideration. Peter Roskam is the worst. Lets not allow him to coast to another re-election.
- Image by Getty Images via Daylife
I really like Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky. I’m jealous of the 9th district. You can just tell when you hear her speak that she really cares about the people who live in her district and that she wants to use her position to help them. Today we had a good example when it was announced that the scheduled deportation of UIC student Rigo Padilla to Mexico had been deferred for another year by the Department of Homeland Security. The deferment will allow Rigo to remain here while he finishes his studies at UIC , where he is an A student regarded highly by the faculty and student body.
A citizen of Mexico, Rigo has been in the United States since the age of 6 when he moved here from Jalisco with his family. His undocumented status was discovered when he was arrested on a DUI charge. Representative Schakowsky has been actively working to prevent Rigo’s deportation. She introduced legislation last week to grant him permanent residency. This week’s decision is due, no doubt, in no small part to Jan’s efforts on Rigo’s behalf. Thank you, Jan.
Jan issued a statement today in response to the Homeland Security determination:
“The Department of Homeland Security has decided that Rigo Padilla will not be deported next week and I am thrilled that we won our fight to keep him home. Unfortunately, Rigo’s saga illustrates the plight of so many like him who love this country, consider themselves Americans in every way, yet are forced to live in the shadows. We cannot resolve the thousands of heartbreaking cases one-by-one. Rigo’s ordeal underscores the need to fix the broken immigration system in a comprehensive way, and I believe that we cannot wait any longer to do so. Every day we go without reform, we deprive our country of talented students, strong leaders and hard working people who come here from around the world with the simple dream of a better life for themselves and their families.”
Nice. I just wish that here in the 6th district we had a representative who worked to help people like Rigo instead of spending his days in Congress dreaming up new burdens to pile on their backs in his quest for political advantage. But that’s our Peter. Remember this ugly ad from his 2006 campaign against Tammy Duckworth:
Nothing makes me angrier about Peter Roskam than his demonization of immigrants. The 6th District is a diverse place (though maybe not on Peter Roskam’s block). If I am interpreting the 2008 American Community Survey correctly, about 1 in 5 of us was born elsewhere. Roskam likes to portray immigrants as a threat and a drain on the economy. But nothing could be further from the truth. Immigrants, both documented and undocumented, provide a net economic benefit for our communities and enrich our lives in so many other ways. And justice demands that we implement immigration policies that treat people fairly and do not impose undue hardships on those who come among us seeking only a better life for themselves and for their families.
We don’t have to put up with Peter Roskam’s immigrant bashing. We have a chance again next fall to make a change. And there is a Democratic candidate, Ben Lowe of Wheaton, who promises a better way when it comes to immigration policy. I hope that those of you in the district who are immigrants yourselves and those who are concerned that our immigrant brothers and sisters be treated justly, will get acquainted with Ben. I also hope that those of you who have a few bucks to spare will consider making a donation to Ben’s campaign. He really needs help badly right now to get the campaign up and running. You can do both at:
Ben Lowe for Congress, Illinois 6th District
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That’s right. Peter Roskam is pretty much as bad as it gets.
You have one vote in the House of Representatives and Peter Roskam is using it to advance the interests of big banks, and insurance companies, and oil companies – rather than to help you.
Roskam has consistently voted against a fair minimum wage for workers and against equal pay for equal work – at the same time advocating unlimited compensation for corporate executives. He has repeatedly opposed efforts to expand the Children’s Health Insurance Program and uses taxpayer dollars to send out campaign materials advocating against Democratic efforts to make affordable healthcare available to all Americans. He has used his vote to prevent workers from organizing for better pay and working conditions and has opposed reasonable workplace safety regulations.
As the country has struggled to recover from the economic collapse resulting from the disastrous policies of the Bush Administration, Peter Roskam has refused to extend unemployment benefits to displaced workers and has voted against continuation of government food relief programs. Worse still, he uses his office to work for still more of the corporate deregulation that brought us to this low point to begin with.
Roskam stood silent while the Bush administration carried out torture and endless illegal detention in your name and wasted billions on pointless military adventures and payouuts to corrupt defense contractors.
And as global climate change and its devastating ecological consequences threaten our children’s future, Roskam is siding with the big polluters and the U.S. Chamber to prevent any meaningful response.
But now you have another chance to make that all change. His name is Ben Lowe and he is a generous young man, a progressive Democrat, who has put his life on hold in order to run against Roskam next fall when no one else would. Ben is an exceptionally bright and capable person, unbeholden to corporate interests, who proposes to use that one vote in Congress to do things that will help all of us. You can read about some of his ideas here.
But because Ben is an outsider, he has an exceptionally difficult task ahead of him in securing the kind of support from the national party that can help him win against a generously-funded Peter Roskam in November. To secure that support, it is absolutely critical that those of us in the district who want change do everything we can to show our support for Ben as our candidate. And that means donating whatever we can afford, however large or small an amount that may be, to Ben’s campaign. I have done so, and will continue to do so as I am able. I hope you will also send Ben something today.You can make donations online at Ben’s Campaign website:
In recent days, the 6th District’s Republican Congressman, Peter Roskam, has been doing his best to stimulate public hysteria over the proposed transfer of prisoners currently held at the Guantanamo Bay detention facility to Illinois’ maximum-security Thomson Correctional Center. Those efforts have largely failed, with both major Chicago newspapers and most reality-based leaders denouncing Roskam’s fearmongering and supporting consideration of the plan. The public seems to have been largely unaffected by Roskam’s campaign.
Now Roskam is whining because U.S. Senate candidate and Illinois Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias reports having been briefed on the possible transfer by staff from the National Security Counsil (NSC):
“Given Mr. Giannoulias’ disclosure that he received a NSC briefing on possibly moving Guantanamo to Illinois, I urge the Obama Administration to eschew the increasingly political nature of this situation. Moving terrorists to Illinois will have tremendous security and economic implications, and now this situation has been tainted by the appearance of political favoritism given that a Democrat U.S. Senate candidate received a NSC briefing while elected Members of Congress have not. The people of Illinois will be best served by a process that forgoes the behind-closed-doors political approach and instead provides foropen and transparent consideration.”
Ha! We’re wondering when Peter Roskam is going to “eschew the increasingly political nature of this situation.” We suspect that Mr. Giannoulias received a briefing because he requested it and that Roskam, as a member of Congress, could have requested the same at any time. Instead, political opportunist that he is, Roskam smelled blood in the water when he heard about the propoosal and immediately launched into an attack against the administration without troubling himself to learn the facts. This, of course, is Roskam’s modus operandi.
Meanwhile, Roskam’s eminently sensible opponent, Democrat Ben Lowe of Wheaton, has released what I think is a terrific statement on the proposed transfer and the need we have as a nation to return to respect for our constitution and legal heritage:
Understandably, after 9/11, our nation developed a heightened fear of those who seek to commit acts of terror against our country. But somewhere during the Bush era, we also lost confidence in the ability of our judicial system to administer justice to those suspected of committing or supporting terrorism.
Instead of trusting that the foundational elements of our democracy are capable of withstanding this great challenge, we began to exchange many of our civil rights (including the writ of habeas corpus) for a greater sense of security. We stopped trusting our courts, our prisons, and the principles of due process and representation under the law, which are so vital to our democracy.
We can do better.
We can do better. We can replace Peter Roskam with a serious leader focused on problem-solving and not political theater. I think Ben Lowe is that kind of leader. Readers who long for things to change may want to wander over to Ben’s website and drop him a few bucks to help get his campaign up and running.
